Royal Mail share cut 'scam'

22 March 2011

Royal Mail has today (Tuesday) briefed staff about ColleagueShare valuations which leave postal workers up to £1,400 out of pocket, the Communication Workers Union has learnt. The union knows that Royal Mail has paid out ColleagueShare to staff who have left the company in the last six weeks and this exposes their argument that the shares are worthless – if they had no value then other staff should not have received payments recently.

ColleagueShare was introduced in 2007 as a 'phantom share scheme' which pays out bonuses to staff based on the value of the company. The formula was agreed between Royal Mail and the government but CWU was deliberately excluded from those discussions and remains in the dark about operational details of the scheme. It has paid out up to £1,600 to postal workers so far and was due to pay out a further £1,400 this year, up to a limit of £5,300 over the five year life of the scheme.

Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: “Royal Mail has destroyed any remaining trust that postal workers have for the company. Their argument that ColleagueShare has no value suits the company's new business plan and also fits with the agenda of the Conservative-led government and plans to privatise Royal Mail.

“It would appear that Royal Mail is manipulating the numbers to avoid paying staff earned bonuses and to help the government to privatise the company at a rock bottom price. This is bad news for the taxpayer, bad news for postal services, and bad news for Royal Mail workers.

“We acknowledge Royal Mail has problems with declining mail volumes and revenue but the company needs to honour its commitments to workers and be open and transparent about its financial problems.

“This news will anger workers and many of them will want the union to take action. This announcement comes hard on the heels of another announcement about job losses and we say to the company: don't follow your usual road to conflict. Work with the union, rectify this mistake and honour all your commitments to your staff.”

Attached are two Royal Mail documents – the first is the letter being distributed to staff today about ColleagueShare, the second is the company's guide to the ColleagueShare plan.

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to ePolitix.com. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the ePolitix.com service.

As such, ePolitix.com does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.